Ain't It Cool News was launched in 1996, and its name is attributed to a quote from John Travolta's character in the film Broken Arrow.

He spent a lot of time in newsgroups exchanging gossip and rumors about upcoming films, eventually creating his own website as part of his internet hobby.

Production assistants, people in the industry, secretaries, and other behind-the-scenes folk would submit news such as casting decisions, scripts, and release dates, though Knowles himself has admitted that in the beginning, some of the articles from these alleged "spies" were his own work generated from scouring the newsgroups.

Over the next few years the site expanded by adding associate contributors across the globe, most of whom would go by pseudonyms, such as Elston Gunn; Chicago movie critic Steve Prokopy, who goes by the name "Capone" on AICN; Eric Vespe ("Quint"); Moises Chiullan ("Monty Cristo"); UK-based critic Adam Stephen Kelly ("Britgeek");[2] and Barbara Kennedy.

Sylvester Stallone answered numerous questions from fans in the site's message boards while publicizing the release of Rocky Balboa as well as The Expendables.

[13] The Hollywood Reporter also noted that Knowles owed $300,000 in back taxes to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service by that point, and the inability of AICN to adapt beyond a dated '90s web template, being outpaced by newer sites, and its continuing difficulty generating the scoops and headlines it was known for in its prime.

[17] Longtime writers Steve Prokopy, who used the pseudonym "Capone," and Eric Vespe, who as "Quint," had been with the site since its beginnings, announced that they were leaving AICN.